Not Necessarily a Lost Cause: Matthew Fox Arrested on DUI Charges

A still from “Lost,” in which the pill-popping alcoholic Jack Shephard reads a piece of John Locke’s obituary, on his way to a funeral home.  

May 8, 2012 — It seems like fodder for a Lost joke that the man who portrayed alcoholic surgeon Jack Shephard has been arrested in a landlocked city on DUI charges. As the character of Kate Austen once pleaded with Shephard on a runway in Los Angeles, maybe it is time to go back. Clearly the real world has taken a toll on the island dwelling leader. Matthew Fox, the former star of JJ Abrams’ seminal television series Lost, now resides in Bend, Oregon, with his wife Margherita Ronchi and their two children, Kyle and Byron.

Fox was reportedly driving through the Eastern Oregon town to a fast-food restaurant when he was pulled over by police on suspicion of drunk driving. A police report issued early Friday morning stated that the actor’s car was stopped at an intersection after failing to drive within its lane and use an appropriate signal. There was also an unidentified passenger in the vehicle when the incident occurred.

Matthew Fox, recently arrested for one type of distracted driving.

Matthew Fox was detained at the Deschutes County Adult Jail for several hours before being release. The police report noted that the case was being forwarded to the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office. This is not the first run-in Fox has had with law enforcement. Last year, he allegedly got into a physical altercation with a private bus driver after she refused him entrance on board the vehicle. Criminal charges were never brought against Fox, although the driver, Heather Bormann, filed a civil suit seeking monetary damages.

Although Fox’s level of sobriety has not yet been confirmed, residents of the Bend community are relieved that no other individuals were harmed Thursday night. Advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reports that the average drunk driver has driven drunk eighty times before a first arrest. This jarring statistic lays the foundation for another harsh truth: Every fifty minutes, someone dies in a drunk-driving related crash- over ten thousand people each year.

Stop signs> like this one can remind you to drive sober.

It’s easy to get complacent when relatively tame incidences of driving under the influence circulate in the news, but such learned ambivalence eventually results in tragedy. Before getting behind the wheel while intoxicated, explore many of the numerous options designed to get drunk (or sober) you where you need to go. Forty-three US states have designated driver services, either operating as non-profits or in conjunction with local taxi services. For those citizens living in states without these organizations, it is crucial to designate a sober driver on any night when drinking will occur.

In the spirit of Lost, here at the Parking Sign Blog we’re hoping to flash-forward to a day when drunk driving is a thing of the past.  It’s up to every individual to help get us there.

– R. Sapon-White

Category: News, Regulations